Pinterest Wannabe

I've been trying to be somewhat crafty around it.  It's definitely cheaper to do it yourself than to go and buy something already made.  However, making an ornament topiary was more expensive to make and a headache to build.  Here's a look at some of my creations. I found that our porch was looking rather drab since we removed the whiskey barrel.  I found this shelf on clearance at Lowes, as well as the lantern.  The birdhouse, basket, pine cones, orange thing-a-ma-jigs and foliage was all on clearance at Michaels. My plan is to change out the decor for each season.  I painted the birdhouse and instead of putting a candle in the lantern I filled it with those pumpkin looking things and pine cones.  All in all I think I spent a max of $25 for the shelf and decor.

Now that fall is over, I pulled out the Christmas decorations and went to town figuring out what to put on our shelf!  Here's what I came up with.

Same bird house, same lantern (with dollar store ornaments inside), dollar store garland, foam cubes, wrapping paper, and ribbon.  Now that top piece...UGH!!!! It took me 2 trips to the store and I bet cost over $20 to make.  We decided that we needed to somehow tie it down so it wouldn't fall over since the shelf isn't too solid.  I even handpainted it and put lovely little swirls on it.  Elijah dropped it and the pot broke and ornaments went flying.  I should have realized then that it was a bad idea.  Bought a second pot and just glued a ribbon around it.  Along comes lovely NM weather and even with 2 huge pavers holding down the shelf our tornado like winds knocked the entire shelving unit over and again breaking my topiary.  Over it!!! I told Elijah I never want to see it again!  I'm sure I could have just reglued the ornaments back on, but I didn't want to anymore.  So now the pot is there with some garland sort of crap and the topiary went in the trash. At least I got a picture, right??
Here's a couple more pictures of some things we have done to make it feel a bit more Christmasy around here!

This is also homemade.  I like how simple it is.

Our jewel toned Christmas tree

Dining room table decor. 

Thanksgiving

It's been a super long time since I last blogged.  Work and family has been keeping me beyond busy.  When I'm not busy with all that, I am sitting down to relax for short spurts of time. I figured it would be time to play catch up....a little bit!  Thanksgiving was really mellow around these parts.  We made our Thanksgiving feast and enjoyed it as our family of 3.  We also shared it with the puppies, which I think they enjoyed for 3.25 seconds!

Checking on the turkey

Basting

"The helper" making sure all is right with the turkey.

Self portrait.  Someone looks surprised!

The dogs/cat waited patiently...sort of for their treats.  Only in our house are the dogs so demanding that they need their food before us!

Huge plates o'goodness!

Sunny enjoying his feast

Nice action shot of Sid

Bruno and his 3 bite plate

Zane taking his time!

After the dogs and cat got fed we made Audrey's plate.  Here is a picture montage of her reaction.

Me: "Are you ready to eat?"
Audrey: "Yeah!!"

Vomit look on her face

"Well, at least there's bread."

Fake it til you make it

"Oh no.....he put it on the spoon!!"

Aversion.  Still happens after 2 years.

No Thanksgiving would ever be the same without a photo with the pope's nose.  Look it up if you don't know what it is!! Family tradition here.  Just keeping it classy.

Happy Hump Day

I don't know what is going on with our cat.  He is roughly 13/14 years old and has decided that he wants to live outside (which we don't allow) and demands cheese and chicken from our plates.  I don't know if he has felt a level of entitlement for whatever reason or doesn't like the fact that Audrey occupies all of our attention, but today he made it known who is KING of the house.  We were sitting in the living room catching up on the latest Sons of Anarchy episode when Elijah whispers, "Look at Sunny."  There was Sunny, our cat, sitting on top of our 105 pound lab, Bruno.  I happened to have my phone on me and caught this escapade on video. You can faintly hear Sunny growling/meowing while biting Bruno's neck and Bruno just laying there probably thinking, "What am I supposed to do?  Will I get in trouble if I get up?  Do I stay here and let the cat sit on me?"  In the end, Sunny and his neutered self had the best of Bruno on Wednesday...hump day.  Enjoy this molestation.

Never. Ever. EVER. Trust a 2 year old.

Last night Audrey asked for her "treasures" which is her homemade moon sand with colorful marbles in it that she can find as treasure.  So I placed it on her table and let her play while Caillou was playing in the background.  This allowed Elijah and I to watch some uninterrupted Raising Hope.  A short while after it was over Audrey comes out looking for her hand held broom and dust pan.  She was covered from neck to toe with her white treasure dust.  We proceeded to go to the bedroom where 'The mess of 2012' was.  That moon sand was EVERYWHERE!! Along with that was her dinosaur puzzle, a bag of Cracker Jacks strewn about, a Halloween goodie bag, tons of lip gloss, her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figurines, and a moon sand covered bacon sandwich (which she still wanted to eat).  This is a look at her mess!  Notice that she also includes her favorite saying in this video: "NO! Mine."

Busy October

We have been so busy since Fall has started. There hasn't been a weekend where we didn't have something going on, like a birthday, a trip to the pumpkin patch, or work commitments.  I am finally getting a small chance to sit down and give a quick recap of what we have been up to lately.  We made it out for the opening weekend of a local pumpkin patch called Galloping Graces.  Its got free admission and anything you buy or donate goes straight to their great organization on working with special needs kids.  Audrey had a blast at just about everything!!

First stop...playing in the corn.

Time to get buried!

Riding on these bouncy horses was kind of a fail...until mommy rode it with her.

Super cute idea!!

Audrey loved this little area!

Making a mean mud cupcake!

Audrey was a bit afraid of the horse, but he was such a sweet boy!

Time for the duck races!

Get ready....

Set....

(backwards photo).  All done!!

Go!!

Corn maze time!

Cheeeeeeesssseee.  Photo fail.  Eyes closed and over exposure.

Picking out her "unkin"

We also went to our great nephews costume birthday party where we all dressed up as pirates and won the prize for best costume. Woo hoo!!

Arrrrgggghhh matey!

Audrey with her cousin Lucy who dressed up as Rose from Titanic.

We also went to my friend Kelly's daughter's 2nd birthday party.  Alexis' theme was all about painting.  I am so glad Audrey wanted to participate and her handy work is now on our wall in the hallway!!

Audrey and Alexis getting their paint on.

All done and hanging on the wall!

The following weekend we hit up the Balloon Fiesta, which will be a whole additional post since the pictures are just amazing.  That evening we went to Braylon's second birthday party and it was nice to get the kids all together again!

Sebastion and Braylon playing with his new kitchen!

Inappropriate behavior for a 2 year old party.  Tanner and Audrey "wresting."
 

And finally, last night we went to my school's Fall Carnival. It was a ton of fun! We walked around with Audrey for a while and then I found myself spraying kiddos hair with various colors until the carnival was over!! I do not have pictures of our creations, but I'm sure all the parents had fun washing that stuff out!

Daddy and daughter matching tattoos.  We are a hardcore family.

Balloons and face painting.  Yes, please.

This is what happens when you wait for mommy to finish painting 80 kids hair!

The highlight of her night....Clifford.  She cried when he left.  The other kiddo is Justin, my future student in 2 years.

Audrey and Avery hugging it out.

Good friends!! 

Fall isn't even over yet and we have had so much fun thus far.  Next week I have parent/teacher conferences, so it's going to be a long one, but I am looking forward to an extra day off and Halloween right around the corner!